Democratic Wave in Congress Further Erodes Moderation in GOP

[Demeter]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120601954.html?referrer=email



Democratic Wave in Congress Further Erodes Moderation in GOP

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, December 7, 2006; A29



Iowa Rep. Jim Leach (R) seemed a natural to weather voters' antiwar sentiment this fall. His independent streak and moderate views had engendered the allegiance of his Democratic-leaning district for the past 30 years, and he broke with his party and President Bush in October 2002 by voting against the Iraq war.

Yet on Election Day, voters in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District ousted him in favor of an untested Democrat, a college professor -- a testament to the vulnerable position that Republican moderates found themselves in all year. Voters in Leach's district said that they respected him but that his party affiliation kept them from voting for him this year.

"He's a good guy, and he has integrity, and I think he has done a great job -- but he's still a Republican," said Jeremy Jackson, an Iowa City novelist.

With the defeat of Leach and several other Republican moderates Nov. 7, the Democrats' victory in the midterm election accelerates a three-decade-old pattern of declining moderate influence and rising conservative dominance in the Republican Party. By one measure, the GOP is more ideologically homogenous now than it has been in modern history. The waning moderate wing must find its place when the Democratic majority takes over in January.

"The irony of this election is that the public, in seeking change, has . . . weakened the center," Leach said recently. "In a sense, what has occurred is the strengthening of the edges of the parties."

OF COURSE, "MODERATE GOP" COMPLICITY WITH THE NEOCONS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!

[whistle]

1. Moderation in GOP is an oxymoron